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Face to Face

NIMEP NameWebcasting technology is giving Tufts students an on-the-ground view of the realities of life in the Middle East.


The same technological advances that are changing the way the world communicates are bringing Tufts students face-to-face with the cradle of civilization.

Since the fall of 2003, Tufts’ Experimental College has offered a student-led class enabling Tufts students to connect with their peers in the Middle East. Three years later, that class is becoming part of the political science curriculum at Tufts.

"It gives you the opportunity to talk with actual human beings who live in that part of the world, to change your perspectives on the relationship, to hear from them, for them to hear from you, and to learn from people who are living through this time in history," explains Matan Chorev (LA '05, MALD '07), who helped launch the course with the support of the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and the student-led New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP).

The class is part of the Connect program run by Soliya, an organization that links American and Middle Eastern students via web-based videoconferencing technology.

Repackaged as "Encounters with the Middle East," the Tufts course will be taught this fall by Associate Professor of Political Science Malik Mufti as two lecture classes per week in addition to the weekly webcast component.

"I was impressed… that it allows students in the Unites States and the Arab world to interact online on common projects," says Mufti, who also chairs the international relations program. "It really fits in perfectly with the vision of Tufts as a platform for international interaction."

Active Learning

According to 2006 Tufts graduate Negar Razavi, who facilitated the course during her senior year, Soliya fosters an important dialogue that enables students to rethink many of the perspectives they’ve encountered in other courses about the region.

"Just hearing from young people and hearing their concerns and their perspectives adds so much depth to what you learn in the classroom."

— Negar Razavi (A'06)

"Just hearing from young people and hearing their concerns and their perspectives adds so much depth to what you learn in the classroom," she says.

Razavi interned with Soliya in the summer of 2005, helping refine the curriculum and training as a facilitator for the course.

"People come into it with their own preconceptions and we want them to be aware of those preconceptions and then try to deconstruct why we think that way—how much of it is based in fact and how much of it is based on just what we've heard?" Razavi says. "So we start very personal, and then try to grow out from there and build more of an academic background behind it."

For Mufti, the course provides more than a valuable opportunity for cross-cultural dialogue.

"The class reflects the University-wide commitment to really deepening our international [character]—not just in academics, not just in international education, but also the active participation component of it as well," Mufti says. "This is a beautiful way for students not just to learn about the Middle East but to actually engage with Middle Easterners in a collaborative effort."

Profile written by Elizabeth Hoffman, Class of 2008

Liz Hoffman is a junior majoring in political science and community health. She is now in her second semester as Executive Sports Editor of the Tufts Daily.

Banner photo of Jerusalem by Pedro Ugarte, AFP/Getty Images; top left photo of Iraq by Marco Di Lauro, Getty Images; sidebar photo of Mufti by Aaron Schutzengel (A'07)

This story originally ran on Aug. 14, 2006.